Netflix's Recommendation Engine Drives 75% Of Viewership

Flickr/JdlasicaNetflix is pulling back the curtain in a two-part blog post to reveal some behind-the-scenes workings, such as the fact that 75% of the content watched on the service comes from its recommendation engine.

No, the company doesn't reveal its recommendation algorithm (which we imagine to be quite complex), but it does emphasize that "everything is a recommendation," from a standard Top 10 to those quirky super-specific genres, like "Imaginative Time Travel Movies From The 1980s."

When Netflix displays rows of movies in those genres, it's personalizing its service three times: "the choice of genre itself, the subset of titles selected within that genre, and the ranking of those titles."

With the focus on being as personal as possible, it makes sense that such a high percentage of Netflix viewership comes directly from its recommendation algorithm.